For many golf courses in the West, winter brings a significant increase in rainfall. While the weather may be warm enough for golf, heavy rains can negatively impact playing conditions and make routine maintenance a challenge. One of the most common issues associated with heavy rains is bunker washouts. Repairing washouts consumes countless staff hours at golf courses in the West each winter, but an increasing number of courses are choosing to invest in bunker renovations that reduce the risk of washouts and allow staff time to be focused elsewhere.

Seymour Golf and Country Club in North Vancouver, British Columbia, is in a unique location that receives approximately 100 inches of annual rainfall. Excessive rainfall created persistent bunker washouts that negatively impacted playability, contaminated bunker sand and required significant amounts of staff time to move sand back onto the slopes. The bunker edges were also prone to erosion or collapse during periods of heavy rainfall, creating further issues.

A planned bunker renovation provided an opportunity to address the washout and edge issues through improved bunker construction. A porous aggregate liner with a polymer binding agent was chosen from different liner options because it would allow for rapid water movement through the bunker sand and into the drainage system, greatly minimizing the risk of washouts. In addition, Superintendent Jim McGarvey used a technique to stabilize the bunker edges that he has used with success for several years – the installation of soil-filled burlap bags around the perimeter of each bunker.

Burlap bags filled with a mixture of sand, compost and soil were placed around each bunker to create a 1-foot-wide strip that matches the native soils but contains no rocks. Perennial ryegrass sod was laid over the bags to stabilize the soil before the bags decompose in approximately 18 months. Installing the bags and encapsulating them in sod would stabilize the bunker edges and limit sand contamination that was occurring because of bunker edge erosion and collapse.

The decision to use a porous aggregate bunker liner along with soil-filled burlap bags around the bunker edges proved to be very positive during the winter rains. No damage occurred to the new bunkers during their first winter rainy season in 2016-2017 and McGarvey reports that despite normal rainfall during all of 2017 and the winter of 2017-2018, no washouts occurred and the bunker edges have remained stable, allowing the staff to focus their time on other areas of the course rather than repairing bunkers.